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Posts tagged with BARACK OBAMA

President Obama returned to the White House on Thursday to resume efforts to end a partisan impasse on a fiscal deal without his wife and daughters, who remain on vacation in Hawaii. His only companion: the family dog, Bo.

Which inevitably brings to mind the aphorism (wrongly) attributed to one of his predecessors, Harry S. Truman: “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.”

So Mr. Obama will have his spirited pet for company in the White House as he confronts the uphill struggle to win House Republicans’ acquiescence to legislation extending the Bush-era tax cuts, which expire after Monday, for income below $250,000 a year. Anti-tax Republicans in the House demand an extension of the cuts for all income levels.

According to a report from the press pool that accompanied the president on the overnight flight, the Obamas’ Portuguese water dog three times wandered into the press cabin, which is at the far end of Air Force One from the president’s lair.

3:02 p.m. | Updated HATFIELD, Pa. — President Obama made a campaign-style foray on Friday to a toy factory in this Philadelphia suburb to rally the public behind his plan to increase taxes on the wealthy while casting Republicans in Congress as modern-day Scrooges.

“I’ve been keeping my own naughty and nice list for Washington,” he told workers and others gathered at a plant that makes K’NEX toys. If Republicans hold middle-class tax cuts hostage to preserve them for the rich, he said, then everyone could end up paying more next year. “That’s sort of like the lump of coal you get for Christmas. That’s a Scrooge Christmas.”

Mr. Obama’s trip here was his first return to the road during a high-stakes effort to outflank his opponents on Capitol Hill in the looming crisis over the nation’s finances. Rather than just sit down and negotiate with Congressional leaders, as he tried in the past to his disappointment, the president is pursuing a dual-track strategy that involves concentrating as much public pressure on lawmakers as possible even as his aides make the rounds on Capitol Hill.

So far, Mr. Obama has largely stuck to his past positions, gambling that the 51 percent of the popular vote he won in this month’s election constitutes a mandate that will force Republicans to back down. While he repeated here on Friday that he was willing to compromise, the proposals his advisers laid out to Congressional leaders on Thursday reflected an opening bid in a four-week negotiation with little new compromise so far.

Among other things, the president’s advisers told Congressional leaders that he wanted $1.6 trillion more in tax revenues over the next 10 years, $50 billion in short-term stimulus spending to bolster the economy and an end to Congressional control over statutory borrowing limits. In exchange, he agreed to $400 billion in savings from Medicare and other entitlements over 10 years, to be worked out next year with no guarantees.

House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio, responding to President Obama’s appearance, told reporters talks to avert a fiscal crisis in January are at an impasse.

“There’s a stalemate. Let’s not kid ourselves,” he said. I’m not trying to make this more difficult. If you’ve watched me in the last three weeks I have been very guarded in what I have to say. I don’t want to make it harder for me or the president or members of both parties to be able to find common ground.”

“Right now, we’re almost nowhere,” he concluded.

Mr. Boehner also declared Mr. Obama’s plan unacceptable. But he did not offer a counterproposal. Instead, he decried what he called a lack of seriousness and leadership on the part of the president.

“Republicans are not seeking to impose our will on the president. We are seeking a bipartisan solution that can pass both houses of Congress and can be signed into law by the president in the coming days,” he said.

He also dug in against tax rate increases Mr. Obama is demanding.

“Increasing tax rates draws money away from our economy that needs to be invested in our economy to put the American people back to work. It’s the wrong approach,” he said.

If Mr. Obama and Congress do not reach agreement, then taxes will rise and spending will fall automatically at the end of the year. Mr. Obama, however, has focused his message almost entirely on taxes, narrowing the debate to the question of whether the Bush-era tax cuts should be extended for household income over $250,000 a year.

He called again on Congress to go ahead and extend the cuts now for income under that level. “The reason I’m here is because I want the American people to urge Congress soon in the next week the next two weeks to begin the work we have by doing what we all agree on,” he said. “Both parties agree that we should extend the middle-class tax cuts.”

Doing so would in effect end the debate over extending tax cuts for higher income since Congress presumably would not pass such a bill separately and even if it did Mr. Obama would veto it.

The president tried to enlist supporters to engage in the fight directly. “I want you to call, I want you to send an e-mail, post on their Facebook wall,” he said.

He spoke after touring a Rodon Group factory here that makes K’NEX Brands construction toys like Tinkertoy, Ninetendo and Angry Bird building sets. About 150 people work at the factory and the White House said Rodon brought back 95 percent of their packaging and promotion from China to Pennsylvania in recent years.

The trip here culminated a week in which the White House released a report warning that consumer demand would fall if middle-class tax cuts are not renewed, gathered ostensibly typical taxpayers to stand behind the president during a speech and organized meetings between Mr. Obama and small-business owners and corporate leaders.

4:15 p.m. | Updated Former Gov. Mitt Romney visited the White House on Thursday for a private lunch with President Obama, their first encounter since the presidential election as both men try to put the bitterness of a hard-fought and often nasty campaign behind them.

Mr. Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, arrived in a dark sport utility vehicle that pulled up to the White House entrance on West Executive Avenue just before 12:30 p.m., far away from the reporters and photographers waiting for his visit. He exited on the passenger side and walked into the West Wing without pausing.

The two talked for an hour over white turkey chili and Southwestern grilled chicken salad in the private dining room just off the Oval Office. White House officials said no aides joined them for the one-on-one meal, nor was the media invited to record the moment at the start or finish, as it typically does when the president hosts high-profile guests.

“Governor Romney congratulated the president for the success of his campaign and wished him well over the coming four years,” a White House statement said afterward. “The focus of their discussion was on America’s leadership in the world and the importance of maintaining that leadership position in the future. They pledged to stay in touch, particularly if opportunities to work together on shared interests arise in the future.” Read more…

10:47 a.m. | Updated President Obama will have lunch with his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, at the White House on Thursday, making good on an election-night pledge by the president to meet with Mr. Romney.

The White House announced the event Wednesday, in a statement released by Mr. Obama’s press secretary. The lunch will take place in the Private Dining Room, next to the Oval Office in the West Wing, the White House said.

“It will be the first opportunity they have had to visit since the election,” the statement says. “There will be no press coverage of the meeting.”

In fact, the meeting will be closely watched. The two men competed intensely for the better part of a year. Mr. Romney, in private conversations with donors shortly after the election, blamed his loss in part on the president promising “gifts” to Democratic constituencies like minorities and students.

While in Washington, Mr. Romney will also be meeting with his former running mate, Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, according to a spokesman for Mr. Ryan.

If there was still any thought that President Obama and Senator John McCain might eventually move past their once-bitter White House rivalry toward a cooperative governing agenda, it was all but dashed on Wednesday.

The two men who battled for the presidency four years ago spent the day bumping chests and marking their turf over the attack on the United States consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the possibility that Mr. Obama might soon nominate Susan E. Rice, his ambassador to the United Nations, as his next secretary of state.

Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, began the ping-pong volley of sharp-edged commentary in the morning, calling Ms. Rice “unqualified” to serve as secretary of state for her public statements about the September attack in Benghazi. He vowed that he and Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, would do anything “within our power” to block her appointment. The president responded at a news conference in the afternoon, accusing Mr. McCain of trying to “besmirch” Ms. Rice’s reputation and daring him to “go after me” if he wants to.

Mr. McCain then took to the Senate floor to denounce the administration’s handling of the Benghazi attack and to call for a select committee to investigate. He accused the president and his staff of misleading Americans about the events in Benghazi and said Mr. Obama has created a “credibility gap” with the public on the issue.

“I hope the president has no illusions about our view of his responsibility,” Mr. McCain said, adding that “we intend to pursue this until the American people have the answers they deserve.” Read more…

Labor unions and other liberal groups that helped re-elect President Obama are starting a push this week to make sure that any new budget deal does not chisel away at entitlement programs.

Their message to the president, beginning with a meeting at the White House on Tuesday, is that he won a mandate to raise taxes on the wealthy while resisting cuts to Medicare and Social Security, and that they intend to stand firm with him on that position.

The problem here is that urging Mr. Obama not to join House Republicans in reducing entitlement spending is like pleading with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John not to reunite for a Christmas album. It’s just too late.

Sure, there was a lot of specious debate during the campaign about which candidate would protect older people from the evil designs of the other. Mitt Romney claimed, dubiously, that Mr. Obama had raided sacred Medicare financing to pay for his health care plan. Mr. Obama said that Mr. Romney would follow the lead of his running mate, Representative Paul D. Ryan, and scrap Medicare altogether for future generations.

But both candidates had to know how thoroughly disingenuous this debate really was. The fact is that Mr. Obama, during his “grand bargain” negotiations with the House speaker, John A. Boehner, in the summer of 2011, had already signed off on painful cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, even if he never once mentioned that during his re-election campaign. So he knew there was a deal to be had that would preserve — and perhaps even strengthen — these programs without destroying them.Read more…

Mitt Romney was over an hour late to his campaign event in Yardley, Pa., because of a flight delay, but over 25,000 waited in cold temperatures for the candidate to arrive.Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

MORRISVILLE, Pa. — Gov. Chris Christie’s lavish praise for President Obama in the days since Hurricane Sandy has raised eyebrows across the Republican establishment.

Mitt Romney had a message of his own on Sunday night: It does not bother him.

Not publicly, anyway.

At a rally here, Mr. Romney seemed determined to play down any hint of tension between his campaign and Mr. Christie, the New Jersey governor, whose kind words have given the president an unexpected bipartisan credential in the final days of the campaign.

“He’s giving it all of his heart and his passion to help the people of his state,” Mr. Romney said. “They’re in a hard way, and we appreciate his hard work. Thank you, governor.”

Mr. Romney drew a giant crowd of about 25,000, among his largest of the year. Despite polls showing an Obama lead in Pennsylvania, Mr. Romney predicted victory there.

“The people of America understand we’re taking back the White House because we’re going to win Pennsylvania,” he said in Morrisville, near the New Jersey border.

Mr. Romney ran about an hour late, prompting hundreds of people who had stood out in the cold for hours to ask security officials to let them leave while Mr. Romney was still speaking.

After some negotiations, the Secret Service allowed them to leave.

“It’s just too cold,” said Rob Boyson, who walked out just as Mr. Romney was asking the audience, as he does at most rallies: “I want you to walk with me. Let’s walk together. We’re taking back America.”

Iowa is at the center of President Obama’s and Mitt Romney’s dueling strategies for victory, and the president holds a narrow edge over Mr. Romney there, according to a Des Moines Register poll released Saturday evening, which found Mr. Obama with 47 percent, to 42 percent for Mr. Romney.

The candidates crossed paths in Iowa on Saturday, and both are scheduled to visit the state one more time before Election Day, although the poll found that 42 percent of likely voters had already cast their ballots.

The poll, which was conducted Tuesday through Friday, has a margin of sampling error for each candidate of plus or minus 4 percentage points. The poll found that only 2 percent of voters remained undecided, and 5 percent declined to name their favorite.

“There are things that could happen today and Monday that would shape the final outcome,” J. Ann Selzer, who conducted the poll, told The Des Moines Register. “Nobody need be overconfident.”

While the findings are welcome news for Mr. Obama, whose political rise began with the Iowa caucuses four years ago, the poll found that 7 percent could still change their minds. And among that small group, the poll found that 48 percent described themselves as angry and pessimistic, double the overall average.

Iowa’s six electoral votes are being contested heavily by candidates and their campaigns, which have descended on the state in the final weekend of the campaign.

Former Gov. John H. Sununu of New Hampshire, a co-chairman of Mitt Romney’s campaign, injected race into the presidential election in overt fashion on Thursday night, providing a potential hiccup for Mr. Romney in the closing days of the race.

“When you take a look at Colin Powell, you have to wonder whether that’s an endorsement based on issues or whether he’s got a slightly different reason for preferring President Obama,” Mr. Sununu said.

Those who play the perennial Washington parlor game about Hillary Rodham Clinton’s future got a fresh tingle on Thursday after the Wall Street Journal published an interview in which Mrs. Clinton suggested she might stay on longer as secretary of state, even if she termed that “unlikely.”

Mrs. Clinton’s longtime spokesman, Philippe Reines, sent along the following response when asked what her remarks mean:

un•like•ly⁠

Adjective

1) not likely to be or occur; improbable; marked by doubt.

2) holding little prospect of success; unpromising; likely to fail.

“She’s been honored to serve as President Obama’s secretary of state, and has loved every minute of leading this department and being part of the State family,” Mr. Reines said. “But she’s also been clear about her intention to leave after the first term. She merely meant that at such an important time she wants to ensure continuity, and realizes the confirmation of her successor might not exactly line up with Jan. 22, 2013.”

Todd Heisler/The New York TimesPresident Obama with Bill Clinton at the Democratic convention last month.

When the histories of the 2012 campaign are written, much will be made of Bill Clinton’s re-emergence. His convention speech may well have marked the finest moment of President Obama’s re-election campaign, and his ads on the president’s behalf were memorable.

But there is one crucial way in which the 42nd president may not have served the 44th quite as well. In these final weeks before the election, Mr. Clinton’s expert advice about how to beat Mitt Romney is starting to look suspect.

You may recall that last spring, just after Mr. Romney locked up the Republican nomination, Mr. Obama’s team abruptly switched its strategy for how to define him. Up to then, the White House had been portraying Mr. Romney much as George W. Bush had gone after John Kerry in 2004 – as inauthentic and inconstant, a soulless climber who would say anything to get the job.

But it was Mr. Clinton who forcefully argued to Mr. Obama’s aides that the campaign had it wrong. The best way to go after Mr. Romney, the former president said, was to publicly grant that he was the “severe conservative” he claimed to be, and then hang that unpopular ideology around his neck. Read more…

The U.S. consulate in Mumbai, India, held a voting party as U.S. citizens cast their absentee ballots on Monday.Credit Rajanish Kakade/Associated Press

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – President Obama and his wife, Michelle, announced on Monday that they would both vote early, and Mrs. Obama was photographed holding an absentee ballot for Illinois that she later dropped in the mail. Mr. Obama followed up her announcement by saying that he would vote early, in person, on Oct. 25, the next time he planned to be in Chicago.

By voting early, the Obamas will deprive the news media of a time-honored Election Day photo opportunity: the president and the first lady at the ballot box. But they are throwing their weight behind the Obama campaign’s aggressive push for early voting, an increasingly popular process that the campaign believes favors it over the Romney campaign because of its extensive field operation in several of the states that permit early voting.

In a Twitter message put out by the campaign, Mrs. Obama said, “Hey @BarackObama, I just dropped my absentee ballot in the mail – I couldn’t wait for Election Day! Love you! – mo” Moments later, a post from Mr. Obama appeared: “I’m following @MichelleObama’s example and voting early, on October 25.” His was signed “bo,” which the campaign says is an indication that Mr. Obama himself sent it, not his campaign machinery. Read more…

“It’s hard to sometimes just keep on saying, ‘and what you’re saying isn’t true,'” Mr. Obama told Mr. Joyner in an interview. He promised that he would be more aggressive in the next debate, which is scheduled for Tuesday at Hofstra University on Long Island. “By next week, I think a lot of the hand-wringing will be complete because we’re going to go ahead and win this thing,” Mr. Obama said. “We’ve got four weeks left in the election and we’re going to take it to him.”

Mr. Joyner’s radio show has a big audience among African-Americans. Read more…

President Obama drew criticism on Thursday when he said, “we don’t have a strategy yet,” for military action against ISIS in Syria. Lawmakers will weigh in on Mr. Obama’s comments on the Sunday shows.Read more…